China’s ethylene production in March jumped 25.4%

April 18/2011

(ICIS) -- China’s ethylene (C2) production in March jumped 25.4% year on
year to 1.36 m tonnes, bringing its total first-quarter output of the material
to 3.95 m tonnes, official statistics showed on Monday. Compared to February,
production last month was 102 KT higher, according to data from China Petroleum
and Chemical Industry Federation (CPCIF). March ethylene production has had to
keep up with increased requirement from downstream polyethylene (PE) sector, market sources said. But it
looks like production of the basic petrochemical building block may come off
this month as a 1m tonne/year cracker in Tianjin is scheduled for a turnaround,
market sources said.

The cracker, jointly operated by Saudi Arabia’s SABIC and China’s
stated-owned energy firm Sinopec, is due for a 20-day maintenance this month,
said a source at operator Sinopec SABIC Tianjin Petrochemical, without
disclosing the exact dates of the shutdown period.

Meanwhile, a much smaller 160 KTa ethylene plant in Beijing, owned by
Sinopec unit, Beijing Eastern Petrochemical, will be out for eight days in
April, said a company source.

In 2010, China produced 13.7m tonnes of ethylene and imported 815.4 KT of
the material. It exported very little of the monomer at just 33.5 KT last
year, according to official statistics.